Many of our investments at Chrysalis focus on information, how it is accumulated and how it can be used. We value businesses that organize information and create personalized, interactive and connected information products and services that are valuable to businesses or individuals.
The information value chain has been a historically rich vein for venture investing and is one in which Chrysalis has a strong 17-year track record of monetizing information. Expressions of this approach have included investments in the following companies:
- HealthMedia – which collects personal information to develop highly tailored coaching programs to help individuals lose weight, stop smoking, eat better and manage their chronic diseases
- Genscape – which aggregates proprietary energy information that is highly relevant to a specific niche of businesses
- Digitalsmiths – which provides video indexing technology that enables large movie studios to more effectively inventory and monetize their media content
- Continuum – which owns wireless spectrum that serves as the raw material to deliver broadband data over wireless networks
To complement our investment team, we have assembled a deeply experienced team of venture partners and entrepreneurs-in-residence (EIRs) to provide Chrysalis unique insight into how data is and can be used to better understand, target and sell potential customers.
Chrysalis co-founder Doug Cobb, who recently returned to Chrysalis as an EIR, became CEO of Appriss , a Chrysalis portfolio company, in 2000. Appriss aggregates arrest record information from county jails across the country and uses that information to provide innovative software-based services that help local, state and federal criminal justice agencies serve and protect their citizens. Assembling valuable information and efficiently targeting a customer base will continue to be core to many of Chrysalis’ technology investments.
Doug started his first company, the Cobb Group, at the dawn of the personal computer age to provide consumer guidance about how to use first-generation consumer software. The Cobb Group aggregated and edited inexpensive content which was packaged in a newsletter and sold via a subscription to consumers for both personal and professional use. Doug’s three decades of experience with different customer acquisition and data aggregation models make him a unique and invaluable resource.
As our new Venture Partner based in Houston, Alan Ying has brought tremendous expertise to Chrysalis since joining the team in May 2010. Having successfully built and sold a healthcare IT company to Thomson Reuters, where he stayed as CTO for several years, Alan understands how the personalization of data is transforming medicine and the strategies of large information services providers.
Janesse (Jan) Thaw Bruce , who joined Chrysalis as a Boston-based EIR in March 2010, helps Chrysalis understand the opportunities created as established media companies wrestle with the digital transition of their business. Most recently Jan was Managing Director at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, where she ran body+soul magazine, the category leader in wellness and sustainability, and was responsible for the launch of WholeLiving.com, a site leveraging mind, body, spirit, wellness and “green” subject matter.
Based in Atlanta, Greg Foster joined Chrysalis as an EIR in May 2010, bringing a diverse entrepreneurial and executive background in media and technology. Greg was founder and CEO of Southern Direct, an e-commerce platform provider for cable networks, which he sold to Turner Broadcasting. At Turner, he oversaw M&A and investment opportunities for all of Turner’s brands including CNN, TNT, TBS, TCM, Cartoon Network, TruTV and Adult Swim. Greg has a deep understanding of how large media companies are using technology solutions to better organize and monetize content through a variety of marketing strategies.
Collectively, this assemblage of talent provides Chrysalis with experience based insight into how to “connect the dots” and help our entrepreneurs and their customers make better decisions in a world awash in information.